Remembering Alison Des Forges

No one else in the world combined the credibility of having written a definitive, 800-page history of the Rwandan genocide with the willingness to challenge the current Rwandan government for its abuses. Researching and writing about the genocide was far from easy, of course. But this work made Alison a hero to many people (as the tribute pages at www.hrw.org attest). By contrast, her work on the abuses being committed by the Rwandan government today made her something of a skunk at a global garden party. Rwandan president Paul Kagame remains personally popular in the West and many thoughtful people , perhaps motivated by their horror at the genocide, have helped to airbrush his ugly human rights record. On the very day she died, Alison was quoted extensively in the Washington Post, casting doubt on the Rwandan government’s thin rationale for invading eastern Congo yet again. Who will have the authority, the bravery, and the store of unimpeachable knowledge, to hold Kigali to account in quite the way that Alison did?

What made her famous, what made her beloved, was her tireless work on the genocide. What made her a model human rights activist was her insistence that basic standards of human decency are immutable and apply to everyone. At the time she died, the Rwandan government had banned her from the country. That’s so sad. But it also contains, in some way, the really inspirational message of her work.